Dealing with Natural Hair

Hi, Cupcakes! I wanted to share about my personal journey of going back to my natural hair state. I know some of you often look for guidance on dealing with natural hair. If you’re a newbie, Welcome to the club!

I’ve always been afraid to go natural. When the trend with black women embracing their natural hair started, I told myself “that’s a thing I would not participate to. That is way too much work, plus my hair doesn’t fall in the type 3 hair category.” I liked my relaxed hair and didn’t see anything wrong with it because it was growing and thick. (Don’t get me wrong. It’s fine to like and have relaxed hair.)

Pictures of my hair before it all started

Hair in a bun

Hair down

But, then 3 years ago, my best friend and I started our natural journey. Needless to say that I found it too hard to manage and started relaxing my hair again while my best friend continued on her hair journey. I never wore hair extensions my whole life. Last year, I decided to wear hair clips and never took them off unless I needed to wash my hair. BIG MISTAKE!My hair started falling out like crazy because I wasn’t taking care of it and dyeing it left and right. I had no other solution but to go natural. Yes, It was forced but it became one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Pictures with hair extensions

14 inches extension

Pictures when my hair started falling out (I dyed it red)

Cola red

Brownish red

At first, I was lost like everybody. I didn’t know what to do. It was “kinky, coarse”. I spent hours on Youtube looking for natural videos, ‘peeping’ hair products to use, followed many accounts on Instagram. Finally, tired of transitioning , I cut it all off late February!

Big chop and growing

April

August

Things to know about your natural hair

1) Embrace it.

Try to understand your hair type. The ease of your journey depends on many things. After years of relaxing your hair, this is a whole new world. Learning will take time but it is important that you keep track of everything: how is it growing? Is it even growing? What is working, making it softer and manageable? What isn’t?

BRACE YOURSELF!

You will hear a LOT of negative comments, if you’re a type 4 hair, like ” Your hair is so nappy, relax it”, or “How do you go out looking like that?”, or “Men don’t like hair like that”. Yes, I went through all that. It takes a lot of confidence to go through that transitioning phase or growing your hair out after having big chopped.

Karo

Karo

2) Your hair texture is unique

Keep in mind that just because someone’s hair reacted well to a certain product doesn’t mean that yours will, even if your hair type looks the same. It is known that certain people have 2 or more different hair types (The back is always kinkier than the front and the middle, which is my case). You see these youtubers use this and that on their hair and the results are so perfect that you run to the store to get the same products to only have your curls not defined or not holding like you were hoping. That’s when reality settles in! At first, you’ll spend a bit of time trying different products attempting to find what works for your hair. And, GIRL, when you find them, everything becomes so much easier.

Our Instagram Hair Crush, Stacye

Our Instagram Hair Crush, Stacye

3) Conditioners are your best friends

Don’t EVER neglect your normal, leave-in and especially deep in conditioners. They have hydrating ingredients that stop your hair from frizzing all the time without weighing them down. There’s no such thing as putting too much conditioner on your natural hair. Matter of fact, if you want your curls to be defined, according to Anthony Dickey (He holds the key to the perfect wash and go), you should saturate your hair with conditioner because curls are best defined with conditioner and do not disturb them when rinsing it out. (Yes, I tried it. It works)

After finding out about the Shea Moisture products, I was back on the natural hair journey road! My hair has never felt so soft and moisturized.

P.S. Use sulfate-free shampoos.

Click on pictures to see the name of the products

Shea Moisture

Camille Rose Naturals

Carols Daughter

4) Shrinkage is the devil

Shrinkage does not discriminate. It takes one wash to have you rocking a TWA, no matter what your hair length is. No, it’s not a bad thing. When you think your hair is not growing, just stretch it out and compare to pictures taken previously (Remember that you were supposed to keep track of everything? Okay). This is to show how versatile our natural hair can be.

August

August

5)Lack of resources

It is going to be hard to find hair salons to do your hair, if you’re ever trying to reach out for professional help. You’d be surprised to see that not all black people’s hair salons know how to style natural hair. But don’t be discouraged.

6)Trim your ends

You still need to regularly cut your split ends to not cause damage. Avoid heat at all cost.Stay away from chemical processes (The best products are found in your kitchen) and don’t manipulate your hair too frequently.

And most importantly, BE PATIENT! It will take a while before you find your hair flow but it will come.